Before Freedom Party of Ontario was founded in 1984, one of the founding members of the party – Marc Emery – was the publisher of the London Metrobulletin, the owner of the City Lights Book Store in London, Ontario, and a recent candidate for alderman in that city. By 1983, his activism and publishing had made him a well known proponent of individual freedom in the London area.

This is Bill Paul’s first interview of Marc Emery. Emery discusses his political orientation, feminism, libel laws, his 1980 founding of the London Tribune newspaper, his newer London Metrobulletin tabloid, Ayn Rand, and more. The exact date of the interview is not known, but Paul and Emery discussed the fourth issue of the London Metrobulletin, which issue included a reproduction of a passage from the December 2, 1983 Ontario Hansard, which indicates that this interview was recorded in December of 1983.

Published by later-to-be Freedom Party Action Director Marc Emery, four issues of the London Metrobulletin were published in 1983 using equipment purchased from the defunct London Tribune newspaper (formerly owned by Marc Emery, Robert Metz, and others).

Contents of Issue #4:
What is the issue in Grenada? (Mark Pettigrew); Youth against war: So who isn’t?; A letter from the Publisher; Content quotas on automobiles (Peter Kennedy vs. Alex Beretta); Rebuttals to our last issue’s subject: Abortion (L.L. De Veber vs. Marc Emery); London Survey Shows Voters Want Prudent City Government; Stealing in the name of the Lord (Robert Metz); Should libraries pay royalties to Canadian authors? (Herman Goodden); Is socialized medicine a sacred cow? (Murray Hopper); Look! Up in the Sky! It’s a bird.., it’s a plane, its…garbage! (John Cossar); London’s project: Energy from waste; Best of Queen’s Park; Are we all just going to blow up, or what? (Ken Jones); In defence of hate literature and other passions of the mind (Marc Emery); Weep not for the elderly: They never had it so good (Marc Emery); Lessons in Censorship I: Pornography again? [We’re sick and tired of hearing about it too] (Robert Metz); Lessons in Censorship II: Feminists; Lessons in Censorship III: The law; The best of Parliament Hill; Abortion: a need for private care (Kathleen Yurcich);

At some point during 1983, Jennifer Moore of Students Against War was the guest of the Wayne McLean talk radio show on AM 980 (London, Ontario). Moore’s group had apparently been involved in some sort of poorly organized “civil disobedience”, affecting the Mayor of London. Although the group’s aims are not clear, the group apparently was anti-American, anti-nuclear weapons, and anti-NATO. Marc Emery – then publisher of the London Metrobulletin and owner/operator of City Lights bookshop – called in to get some answers.

In June of 1983, Canada’s Justice Minister, Mark MacGuigan (Liberal) announced the formation of the Fraser Committee on pornography and prostitution. In November of 1983, Justice Borins of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice stated that, due to the looseness of the definition of obscenity, a person could be in a position where they did not know they were breaking a pornography law until they were convicted in court. It was announced that the committee would commence cross-Canada hearings in or about early to mid December of 1983. This recording is estimated to have been made in mid-to-late November of 1983. It is an episode of Hotline, hosted by talk radio personality Wayne Mclean. Marc Emery calls in to express his views. Later, the Justice Minister called in. Robert Metz called in response to MacGuigan’s call.

AUDIO – DESCRIPTION:
It’s 1983. Freedom Party of Ontario has not yet been founded. At least two high-profile historical revisionist deniers of the Holocaust in Germany have been making headlines for their anti-Semitic behaviours. In Alberta, Jim Keegstra has lost his teaching job for telling his students a number of false allegations concerning Jewish people (he alleges a world-wide conspiracy, denies the Holocaust, etc.). Meanwhile, in Toronto, another anti-Semite, Ernst Zundel (a man hailing from Germany, originally) is distributing literature alleging that the number of Jewish people murdered by the Nazis has been exaggerated by Jews in an effort to get money from the German government. Understandably, therefore, there is concern that such false allegations will cause people to turn against Jews in Canada.

On October 11, 1983, four-members of the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) testified to a Canadian Parliamentary Committee on Racial Minorities. They, proposed, among other things that the word “wilfully” be deleted from the criminal code provisions relating to hate speech (i.e., so that a person could be found guilty whether or not he “wilfully” did what he did, in order to make findings of guilt easier). So, on October 25, 1983, London (Ontario) talk radio host Wayne McLean invited the Chair of the Steering Committee for the Canadian Jewish Congress, Sharon Wolfe, to be his guest.

After discussing the CJC’s concerns and recommendations, McLean took calls from his listeners. He then spoke with Roy McMurtry (then Ontario’s Attorney General), who said that anti-Semitism was on the rise. He said that there is more anti-Semitic literature around, apparently because of the “aftermath…continuing occurrences in Lebanon” (a reference to ongoing terrorist activity in Lebanon, involving the anti-Jewish, anti-Israel Palestine Liberation Organization, Hezbollah, and their Iranian and Syrian backers. NOTE: just two days prior to this broadcast, an American Marine barracks and a French barracks in Lebanon were each truck-bombed by a group calling itself the Islamic Jihad, killing 299 American and French soldiers).

After speaking with McMurtry, McLean took more calls from listeners, including Marc Emery. Emery, who had interviewed Jewish victims of the Holocaust and had written about the Holocaust in his London Metrobulletin newspaper, calls in to explain the dangers of criminalizing even false and hurtful speech. When McLean asks if Emery wishes that it had been possible to pass a law to stop the expression of hate speech in Germany, Emery points out that they did have such a law in Germany: a law that banned speaking ill of Nazis.

After taking calls from Emery and others, McLean also spoke with Alan Borovoy (general counsel of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association), who, like Emery, spoke against the criminalizing of speech.

Published by later-to-be Freedom Party Action Director Marc Emery, four issues of the London Metrobulletin were published in 1983 using equipment purchased from the defunct London Tribune newspaper (formerly owned by Marc Emery, Robert Metz, and others).

Contents of Issue #3:
A letter from the Editor; Letters to the Editor; Abortion: Legality, morality, and government involvement (Marc Emery versus Joan Lenardon); What is ‘right’ and ‘left’ anymore? (John Cossar); Bill Peterson and David Davis: Leaders of the same party (Robert Metz); Fireside chats (Herman Goodden); The politics of censorship (Robert Metz); What is a right, anyway? (John Cossar); Parents permitted a school of their choice (Alan E. Wheable); TANSTAAFL (Rob Smeenk); In defence of variety store smut (Marc Emery); Brian Mulroney and Gord Walker: Contradic-Tory’s; Things you can read on the bus.

SPECIAL DOOMSDAY SURVIVAL SUPPLEMENT: Life and death when nuclear war comes to London; How nuclear war will likely happen; What is a nuclear weapon?; Sounds bad? You can survive!; All you ever needed to know about fallout [but were afraid to know]; How to make your own fallout filter and pump; Survival in your shelter; Emerging into your new world; Is London a target?; What can you do to help avert war and ecological disaster?; Civil defence; Myths and falsehoods of nuclear weapons; Glossary; How to make the Kearny fallout meter; Appendix; Fallout map of Southwestern Ontario.Continue reading »

Published by later-to-be Freedom Party Action Director Marc Emery, four issues of the London Metrobulletin were published in 1983 using equipment purchased from the defunct London Tribune newspaper (formerly owned by Marc Emery, Robert Metz, and others).

Contents of the May-June, 1983 Issue:
Who are the London delegates favouring for the Conservative leadership bid?; Should parents be permitted to direct their education taxes to a school of their choice? (Alan Wheable and H.K. Vandezande); Rebuttal to arguments expressed by Dr. Gail Hutchinson (Robert Metz); Long live the cruise; Poor no more?; Notes; Labour vs. Labour: the anatomy of the labour movement (Robert Metz); The true believer run amok (Herman Goodden); On my spring break; Blinded by science; Taking a bite out of education taxes; Metrobulletin triva quiz.Continue reading »

In 1983, before Freedom Party of Ontario was founded by Robert Metz and others, Metz was president of a London-area riding association for a political party called Unparty (Unparty folded at the end of 1983). Dr. Gail Hutchinson was a London area radical feminist who (with her London Status of Women Action Group, LSWAG) in the early eighties, led campaigns to ban or otherwise censor the wide range of things she considered “pornography”. As a result, in those years, pornography “dominated the news” in London (in the words of then talk radio host Wayne McLean).

On March 18, 1983, McLean dedicated two hours of his radio program to the pornography issue. His guests were Hutchinson who advocated censorship, and Metz, who opposed censorship. McLean especially wanted to know how his guests defined “pornography”, what if any effects it has on people, and whether (or how) it should be banned or otherwise censored.

NOTES: All commercials have been removed from this recording, but none of the comments made by the host, guests, or callers. All news stories (which played intermittently), except one, have been removed. The one news story relates to a French bill proposing jail terms for publishing derogatory statements about women. Near the middle of the program, the show blocked broadcast of something that someone had said. The blocking takes the form of a few seconds of annoying buzzing and beeping.

In 1983, before Freedom Party of Ontario was founded by Robert Metz and others, Metz was president of a London-area riding association for a political party called Unparty (Unparty folded at the end of 1983). Dr. Gail Hutchinson was a London area radical feminist who (with her London Status of Women Action Group, LSWAG) in the early eighties, led campaigns to ban or otherwise censor the wide range of things she considered “pornography”. As a result, in those years, pornography “dominated the news” in London (in the words of then talk radio host Wayne McLean).

In this radio 6X FM news report, reporter John Collins interviews Hutchinson and Metz about censorship, and about what if any difference there is between “erotica” and “pornography”.

Published by later-to-be Freedom Party Action Director Marc Emery, four issues of the London Metrobulletin were published in 1983 using equipment purchased from the defunct London Tribune newspaper (formerly owned by Marc Emery, Robert Metz, and others).